The event was a five-round Swiss Tournament, with players competing for either Open or Reserve Grade ranking in the 2016 Club Championship. The first six placings qualified for Open ranking.

Bye Requests

Players could elect to request a bye if they were unable to attend a round. Only one bye could be requested per player. A bye round earned half a point.

Tiebreaks

If more than one player was tied for 6th position, the Buchholz score (column “Buch.” below) was to be used as a tiebreak. If two players were tied with the same Bucholz score, the Median-Buchholz (column “M-Buch.”) was to be used as a tiebreak.

In the event two players were tied with the same Buchholz and Median-Buchholz score, a playoff mechanism was to be invoked. This would take the form of a 10-minute rapid play match (players drawing for colors) at the conclusion of round 5.

Round 2

Round 2 was played on Friday 29th April. The match of the round saw Bill Stokie taking the overall lead with a win against Michael Sugrue, despite being two pawns down in a rook and pawn ending. Results were:

Round 3

Round 3 was played on Friday, 6th May. Reza Daneshvar and Geoff Barber both scored strong victories to take the shared lead. New player Stuart Cuxson backed up his round 2 draw against Mio Ristic, grinding out a Knight versus Bishop endgame win against Jack Smith.

Reza Daneshvar took outright honours on 4.5 out of 5, his only draw being to 2015 co-champion Zoran Babic, who finished second on 3.5 out of 5. Geoff Barber, Michael Sugrue, Geoff Davis and Owen Courtis all qualified on a score of 3 out of 5.

The remaining players completed all matches, becoming eligible to compete for the Geelong Chess Club 2015 Reserves Championship.